Melbourne City Council to enforcing on-street parking limits
The free all-day parking bonanza in Melbourne’s CBD is set to end after a flurry of complaints about tradies accused of hogging the city’s parking spaces.
Victoria
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The free all-day parking bonanza in the inner city will be over from Monday.
Melbourne City Council will start fining drivers who overstay in on-street parking zones with green signs.
But Lord Mayor Sally Capp wants warning notices issued instead of fines in the short term.
Enforcing time limits again will mainly affect thousands of tradespeople who have been hogging most of the city’s parking spaces during the day.
This had led to a flurry of complaints by retail traders, residents and visitors to the CBD who had struggled to find a park.
After ordering free parking, the state government has now issued an updated health department guideline allowing councils to enforce parking restrictions “to ensure public safety and access”.
However, the city council will not enforce parking meter fees for the time being.
Council CEO Justin Hanney warned drivers to expect infringements if they overstayed in on-street parking bays.
“Many vehicles are staying all day, resulting in a lack of parking availability and turnover,” he said.
“By enforcing time restrictions for on-street parking this creates an incentive for workers to use the commercial car parks so more on-street parks are available outside businesses.”
But the Lord Mayor has taken issue with motorists being fined, and stressed the decision was taken by council management during the caretaker period before the October 24 council election.
“I understand that carparking space turnover is critical for business, and that’s what I want to see happen,” Ms Capp said.
“But I do not think the time is right to start fining drivers when we want to encourage people back into the city.”
“I think the City of Melbourne should leave a ‘do the right thing’ notice for drivers rather than a fine.”
Ms Capp said she didn’t want to see fines issued until the next stage of easing pandemic restrictions, due from October 19.
Both Ms Capp and election rival Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood have promised some form of free parking in the inner city during summer if they are elected.
Another lord mayoral candidate, Jennifer Yang, has been highly critical of the council’s previous parking policies and number of fines collected.
The council has issued almost 15,000 temporary parking permits to frontline health workers in recognition of their work during the pandemic.
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